Former UNM medical student Chad Cunningham filed a civil suit against UNM’s Board of Regents and the National Board of Medical Examiners for alleged refusal of disability accommodation during his medical exams.
Cunningham suffers from high-blood pressure and scotopic sensitivity syndrome, a condition that is sometimes categorized as a type of dyslexia.
“The students who suffer most are those who have disabilities that aren’t so obvious,” said Dennis Montoya, Cunningham’s attorney.
The complaint has four counts, three of which are against UNM: deprivation of right of due process, violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and breach of contract.
Montoya said that this case is not an unusual one.
“There are very talented, capable Americans out there who are being prevented from succeeding,” he said.
During Cunningham’s first year of medical school in 2006, he experienced intense headaches and had difficulty reading, according to his complaint. He was diagnosed soon after. After taking a medical leave of absence he returned to school in 2007. When it came time to take the Step 1 examination given to all medical students after their first two years, he requested disability accommodation during the exam and was denied based on insufficient documentation, the complaint said.
“Mr. Cunningham made every effort imaginable,” Montoya said.
The defendants and Cunningham disagree on the fundamentals of Cunningham’s conduct.
Cunningham’s complaint stated that he had “fulfilled his duties under the written and implied agreements.” In its response to the complaint, UNM denied Cunningham’s claims that he made several requests for disability accommodation and that the Dean of Students told Cunningham to “get over it and take the test.”
Montoya said he and his client could not understand why defendants UNM and NBME resisted his request. He said that accommodations could include more natural light in the testing room, more time to take the test and the opportunity for breaks.
“The accommodations would be awfully simple and inexpensive,” Montoya said.
In UNM’s answer to the amended complaint, it states that
Cunningham “failed to exhaust his administrative remedies,” and that UNM’s actions were driven by state interest and business purposes. UNM filed a motion to dismiss the case Oct. 4.
The University provided evidence from Gerard F. Dillon, vice president of the United States Medical Licensing Examination and an NBME employee. He outlined the process for students to apply for accommodation and explained the requirements.
“In order to protect the integrity and meaning of the scores, the USMLE is administered under standard conditions,” Dillon wrote.
The defense attached the 2009 Bulletin of Information for the USMLE, a document that includes information for students who wish to request testing accommodations.
The motion included a second letter from Catherine Farmer, the manager of Disability Services and ADA Compliance Officer. She said Cunningham did not provide sufficient documentation for the NBME to make an informed decision.
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“Mr. Cunningham did not respond to NBME’s request for additional documentation, either to provide the requested documents or to confirm that no further documentation would be submitted,” Farmer wrote.
She wrote that after the NBME’s request, Cunningham elected to take the exam without any accommodations on June 24, 2009, and he hasn’t reapplied for accommodation or for a retake of the test since.
The two parties are still locked in pretrial, although Montoya expects to be through the pretrial cycle in around seven months.
